By Angela Marshall
There were at least seven piles of manure on the beach when Jacobs, of Elmont, and this reporter walked along the lake and there were fresh horse tracks leading out into the lakebed. One rider - a 14-year-old girl - rode by on her horse. She stopped long enough to say she does it all the time. She said she never noticed the signs telling her not to.
The signs are new. They were put up this winter after Jacobs requested park personnel do something to keep the horses off the
beach. While Jacobs is pleased that the signs were put up, he doesn't think it's enough.
Horses on the beach or in the water could impact the lake a couple of ways, according to a representative of the state's Department of Conservation. Riding on the beach could destabilize the slopes and push more sediment into the water, said DEC spokesman Bill Fonda.
Sediments can cover the lake bottoms, destroying fish-spawning areas. They can also disturb the habitats of the aquatic insects, which the fish feed on.
Fonda also said the manure or manure runoff could potentially result in more algae bloom in the water. When algae dies, it is decomposed by organisms that use up the water's oxygen supply, leaving little for the fish.
Another threat is the ammonia contained in manure. It is toxic to fish and a "combination of ammonia, warm temperatures and low oxygen levels often results in summer fish kills," according to the University of Wisconsin's Environmental Recourses Center.
Park manager Jeff Mason said horse riders leave the trail and head for the beach most often during summer weather to cool the horses down in the water.
State police patrol the park and say they give tickets to violators when they catch them. When park workers find horse riders where they shouldn't be, they ask them to leave. "It's a problem and we do address it," Mason said.
But Jacobs believes more has to be done. He said he sees riders on the lake often but never sees the police on the beach. Jacobs wants more signs and gates put up to stop the horses from leaving the trails.
"I have nothing against riding horses," Jacobs said. "It's an excellent form of exercise, but some of these individuals are abusing a privilege and breaking a law. They have their own trail and they should be staying on it."
Jacobs suggested the park threaten to pull the permit of the Lakeside Riding Academy if riders continue to ride on the beach.
Lakeside Riding Academy is the only stable with a permit to use the park's five miles of bridle paths.
Anne Saldenieks, a trail guide for Lakeside, admits she and other riders have been riding in the water and along the shore, but she feels the good they do outweighs the bad.
Saldenieks said the riders are constantly cleaning up garbage from the water and beach area. In addition to garbage left by picnickers and hikers, she said the riders have removed dead fish from the lake. They also moved some of the fish from the lake to the ponds when the drought became bad earlier this spring, Saldenieks said. The lake is less than half its normal size because of the draught.
"We don't really do any damage," she said, calling complaints about the manure "ridiculous."
Saldenieks said the riding academy will tell riders not to go to the lake or beach area anymore. But, she said, that will mean, "We're not going to go down and clean up the lake anymore."
